Research reveals the growing importance of mobile phones. In Bangladesh around 75% of the people have mobile phone whereas only 25% have electricity. More importantly most people use their mobile phones to call a doctor.Shahid Akhter | ETHealthWorld | Updated: November 21, 2015, 10:23 IST

Ms. Rama K Jayanti, Prof. Dept of Marketing, Cleveland State University, talks to ETHealthworld about the advent of technology and how more and more people are now congregating on the social networks to discuss health issues.

1. What is the impact of online social networking in healthcare? Does it help or hurt the consumer?

One school of thought says that the occurrence of social networking is good for the consumers to transform themselves from a very passive patient to a very empowered and involved kind of patient.

Social networking helps consumers get informed about what is going on and also be very proactive about their own treatment. People are typically naive. They might get hurt because medical care is complex and self treatment or self diagnosis is not something that experts recommend for such consumers.

Our research addressed this question whether social networking can empower people to make better decisions. Being empowered in healthcare is something that worldwide all governments are looking for. They would like the citizens to be empowered in the healthcare domain. We followed online bulletin boards to look at what the consumers are doing on those bulletin boards.

We looked at whether being part of this social network actually helped or hindered them. Depending on certain conditions the online social networking can be very empowering for consumers. Those conditions are the ability to think by reflecting and refining and also the ability to follow up that thinking action by going to the doctor, asking the right questions, researching their conditions and making sure that you proactively partner with the doctor to take care of your health.

2. What can the industry and public policy do in the face of consumer taking charge of their health?

There is a lot that can be done by way of public policy and what industry can do. The social networks are here to stay. As an industry, we have to unhinge ourselves from the old models. The old model is where the consumers are very passive. Where the doctors of the entire healthcare system have a very authoritarian role to play and they would dictate to the consumer or the patient what to do.

Public policy can play a huge role by making sure that they facilitate this interaction. The consumer should not be fed wrong or misleading information, that there is high quality information available to the consumers when they are collectively discussing the situation.

You don't need to do much to advertise your services or market your services. If you are authentic enough and give good information then the consumers will come to you. You should really transform this industry by making sure that you give good information to the consumer and also take the consumers feedback. Listen to what is going on with the consumers and make sure that you change your business models based on the consumer input.

3. Can the same research help the related fields like pharma and medical device?

As soon as we start seeing the consumer as a resource and as an investment, we change our perspective to look at the consumer. Many companies like the pharmaceutical and medical device companies will look at the problems that the consumers discuss with each other and there are huge opportunities for innovation in them. Both the pharmaceutical and the medical device industry can benefit a lot by these interactions online.

Statistics show that for the first time the mobile phones in the entire world have reached 7 billion units meaning those units correlate perfectly with the population of the world. There are huge opportunities because everybody has access to a mobile phone. Research tells about how in certain rural areas like Bangladesh around 75% of the people have mobile phone whereas only 25% have electricity.

More importantly most people use the mobile phone to call a doctor and find out information about their visit, to look at pregnant women and what kind of care they have to take at home. There are huge opportunities to deliver preventive care through mobile phone.

Only in India the healthcare financing is very small when compared to the financing by the other forces rather than the patient himself or herself paying out of pocket. Having 70-75% of the expenses as out-of-pocket, in my opinion, is not a right approach to managing healthcare in a country where the patients tend to sub-optimally purchase healthcare if he/she has to pay out-of-pocket.